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An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793.

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An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy, published by Clarion Books

Some say that history is dry as dust, and Jim Murphy has indeed made history dusty--not to mention hot, sticky, smelly, sweaty, feverish, terrifying, and utterly riveting. Day by fetid day, week by wretched week, month by miserable month, his vivid narrative charts the course of Philadelphia's yellow fever epidemic as it rampaged through the city, killing some four to five thousand residents, driving out the Federal government, causing the flight of some twenty thousand citizens, and testing to the limit those who remained. Murphy highlights the heroes of the epidemic--the medical community, the quasi-legal committee who stepped in to run the city in the absence of its government, and the members of the Free African Society who diligently nursed the stricken fever patients. Their voices speak directly to the reader through the generous use of primary sources and Trish Parcell Watts's superb design, bringing history directly and spectacularly into the reader's present, v.s.

WHEN I WAS FIVE, our school held an assembly. Since we were the youngest, my class was led to the very front of the auditorium. I was right next to the stage and just tall enough to see that there was a V-shaped trough that ran from one side of the stage to the other with maybe twenty or thirty light sockets in it.

I noticed that half the sockets had light bulbs in them and half were empty. This, of course, got me wondering why Bernie, the janitor, hadn't replaced the bulbs. Then I wondered if maybe the bulbs hadn't been replaced because the electricity to them didn't work. The trough was very dusty and filled with scraps of paper, paperclips, and other debris, and I guessed it had been a long while...

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